Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: André by Dunlap William Moses Montrose Jonas Editor
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 277 lines and 10274 words, and 6 pages
SPOKEN BY MR. MARTIN.
A native Bard, a native scene displays, And claims your candour for his daring lays: Daring, so soon, in mimic scenes to shew, What each remembers as a real woe. Who has forgot when gallant ANDR? died? A name by Fate to Sorrow's self allied. Who has forgot, when o'er the untimely bier, Contending armies paus'd, to drop a tear.
Our Poet builds upon a fact tonight; Yet claims, in building, every Poet's right; To choose, embellish, lop, or add, or blend, Fiction with truth, as best may suit his end; Which, he avows, is pleasure to impart, And move the passions but to mend the heart.
Oh, may no party-spirit blast his views, Or turn to ill the meanings of the Muse: She sings of wrongs long past, Men as they were, To instruct, without reproach, the Men that are; Then judge the Story by the genius shewn, And praise, or damn, it, for its worth alone.
CHARACTERS
BRITISH OFFICER, Mr. Hogg.
AMERICAN OFFICER, Mr. Miller.
CHILDREN, Master Stockwell and Miss Hogg.
AMERICAN SERGEANT, Mr. Seymour.
AMERICAN OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS, &c.
MRS. BLAND, Mrs. Melmoth.
HONORA, Mrs. Johnson.
SCENE, the Village of Tappan, Encampment, and adjoining Country. Time, ten hours.
ANDR?
MELVILLE.
And how is call'd this--honourable spy?
MELVILLE.
Andr?'s his name.
BLAND .
Andr?!
MELVILLE.
Aye, Major Andr?.
BLAND.
Andr?! Oh no, my friend, you're sure deceiv'd-- I'll pawn my life, my ever sacred fame, My General's favour, or a soldier's honour, That gallant Andr? never yet put on The guise of falsehood. Oh, it cannot be!
MELVILLE.
How might I be deceiv'd? I've heard him, seen him, And what I tell, I tell from well-prov'd knowledge; No second tale-bearer, who heard the news.
BLAND.
Pardon me, Melville. Oh, that well-known name, So link'd with circumstances infamous!-- My friend must pardon me. Thou wilt not blame When I shall tell what cause I have to love him: What cause to think him nothing more the pupil Of Honour stern, than sweet Humanity. Rememberest thou, when cover'd o'er with wounds, And left upon the field, I fell the prey Of Britain? To a loathsome prison-ship Confin'd, soon had I sunk, victim of death, A death of aggravated miseries; But, by benevolence urg'd, this best of men, This gallant youth, then favour'd, high in power, Sought out the pit obscene of foul disease, Where I, and many a suffering soldier lay, And, like an angel, seeking good for man, Restor'd us light, and partial liberty. Me he mark'd out his own. He nurst and cur'd, He lov'd and made his friend. I liv'd by him, And in my heart he liv'd, till, when exchang'd, Duty and honour call'd me from my friend.-- Judge how my heart is tortur'd.--Gracious heaven! Thus, thus to meet him on the brink of death-- A death so infamous! Heav'n grant my prayer. .
SEWARD.
M'Donald never spares to lash our pride.
M'DONALD.
In truth I know of nought to make you proud. I think there's none within the camp that draws With better will his sword than does M'Donald. I have a home to guard. My son is--butcher'd--
SEWARD.
Hast thou no nobler motives for thy arms Than love of property and thirst of vengeance?
M'DONALD.
Yes, my good Seward, and yet nothing wond'rous. I love this country for the sake of man. My parents, and I thank them, cross'd the seas, And made me native of fair Nature's world, With room to grow and thrive in. I have thriven; And feel my mind unshackled, free, expanding, Grasping, with ken unbounded, mighty thoughts, At which, if chance my mother had, good dame, In Scotia, our revered parent soil, Given me to see the day, I should have shrunk Affrighted. Now, I see in this new world A resting spot for man, if he can stand Firm in his place, while Europe howls around him, And all unsettled as the thoughts of vice, Each nation in its turn threats him with feeble malice. One trial, now, we prove; and I have met it.
GENERAL.
And met it like a man, my brave M'Donald.
M'DONALD.
I hope so; and I hope my every act Has been the offspring of deliberate judgment; Yet, feeling second's reason's cool resolves. Oh! I could hate, if I did not more pity, These bands of mercenary Europeans, So wanting in the common sense of nature, As, without shame, to sell themselves for pelf, To aid the cause of darkness, murder man-- Without inquiry murder, and yet call Their trade the trade of honour--high-soul'd honour-- Yet honour shall accord in act with falsehood. Oh, that proud man should e'er descend to play The tempter's part, and lure men to their ruin! Deceit and honour badly pair together.
SEWARD.
You have much shew of reason; yet, methinks What you suggest of one, whom fickle Fortune, In her changeling mood, hath hurl'd, unpitying, From her topmost height to lowest misery, Tastes not of charity. Andr?, I mean.
M'DONALD.
I mean him, too; sunk by misdeed, not fortune. Fortune and chance, Oh, most convenient words! Man runs the wild career of blind ambition, Plunges in vice, takes falsehood for his buoy, And when he feels the waves of ruin o'er him, Curses, in "good set terms," poor Lady Fortune.
GENERAL .
His mood is all untoward; let us leave him. Tho' he may think that he is bound to rail, We are not bound to hear him. .
That name sounds like a friend's. .
O Andr?!-- I have but now arrived from the south-- Nor heard--till now--of this--I cannot speak. Is this a place?--Oh, thus to find my friend!
ANDR?.
Still dost thou call me friend? I, who dared act Against my reason, my declared opinion; Against my conscience, and a soldier's fame? Oft in the generous heat of glowing youth, Oft have I said how fully I despis'd All bribery base, all treacherous tricks in war: Rather my blood should bathe these hostile shores, And have it said, "he died a gallant soldier," Than with my country's gold encourage treason, And thereby purchase gratitude and fame.
BLAND.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page